Stir Crazy!!!

Sigh.......

Here I am, having disappeared from the blogging world again, with a confession to make.

I suffer from S.A.D. every year- and the toughest stretch of it for me is right now, in the depths of the winter freeze.

I usually do pretty good through fall (love that season!) and even Christmas- it's just that last leg of winter that really gets me!

Thankfully I've found that, for me, light therapy helps a lot.

So, I try to get out for a daily walk (hard to do with such little babies and kids around everyday, and temps as cold as they've been here this winter), and do my best to either sit by a sunny window (UGH! haven't even seen the sun here in a WEEK!!!) or somewhere that I can have my little HappyLite light box shine on me (hey, I'm not at all above tricking my brain into behaving!).

But, I still have days like today (and the last couple of days leading up to today)- days where I'm pretty much a crazed basket case.

The serious starch and sweets cravings are attacking, all of the unfinished and un-begun home improvement projects are starting to loom up around me, and I just pretty much feel like an out-of-control emotional mess. I try hard to "self medicate" by throwing myself into a project or two, but this year my beautiful, wonderful, miracle-baby bundle of joy is here- which has helped, I think, ward off the worst of the symptoms so far, but also makes it nearly impossible sometimes to really get into a project. (But, I am NOT complaining about her! She is my- our- greatest blessing!) :) No, not complaining, just admitting that lately it's all just a bit difficult for me.

So, that's what's turned me quiet here in "Paradise". ;)

All of this, on top of having my font stuck somehow on italic today- it's almost more than a girl can handle! So, I finally decided today, as soon as Pete got home (that sweet hubby of mine! more on him later.), that I was going to have to distract myself with a project of some kind. I've been blog-browsing over the last couple of days, and so I'm going to share some of what I've been enjoying/dreaming of doing. Hope you find some it useful too- or enjoyable at the very least! :)

This piece of canvas wall art:

It's (ah-ha! no more italics!) called "Tree of Life" by Jill McDonald. I found it here, but, ouch! $144.00 is a bit beyond my budget! Not sure how I'm going to make that one happen yet, but the wheels are a-turnin'. We shall see...

I'm also really enjoying The Copy Cat Cottage blog! I'm so glad my friend Melissa shared a link to it on her blog. Stacy is such an inspiration! She's decorating her home beautifully on a budget- my kinda gal. ;) I already have plans to be a copy cat myself and make some of her chalkboard tags for the various toy and daycare storage baskets we have around here. Because of her I've decided to go ahead and dig out my old home improvement idea/inspiration binder- and have some Pottery Barn catalogs on their way here, that I'll be ripping ideas out of to try to duplicate (on the cheap) in our home.

And, last but not least, I've been enjoying watching some of DIY Wasted Spaces on Hulu.com. It's when I find programs like these that I'm especially thankful that we don't have a t.v.- I'd become an extremely unproductive couch potato, just sitting there, watching these great home improvement shows and daydreaming. ;)

So, tonight I've busied myself by rearranging the playroom shelves (trying to see if I can get all of the toys in there with it still looking neat, not cluttered, giving us more open space in the living room), moved some baskets around to give the art storage area in the dining room a nicer look to it, thrown out a lot more of our piled up magazines, and decided that- just as soon as it's warm enough to open the house up a little for proper ventilation- I'm going to finish the painting projects I've been meaning to get to for so long now!
(I get a bit manic and frantic during these S.A.D. days at times!)

On the painting list:
-finish painting the kitchen drawers and cupboards white & apply new hardware
-paint the kitchen (this will mean figuring out how to patch the big lathe and plaster hole in the wall- hubby be ware!)
-painting the living and dining room one color to unify the two
-painting the bathroom a much lighter, airy-er color

and,

-very possibly painting the outside of our front door and applying a new (read "prettier") door knob/latch.

Plus, hubby's supposed to start the remodel (one of these days) on Regan's room.

As for the aforementioned sweetness of the hubby, he came home, saw the state I was in, and not only bought and prepared supper for us, but also came back from the store with chocolate. Just for me.

:D

Ahhhh. :)

Now, off to bed. Wish me luck getting up and continuing on with this all in the morning!

For Pete

Because we miss you....

What Have We Been Up To?

Having a baby! :)

Meet Regan Kail,

born at 6:26 p.m., Sunday, October 11th.

5 pounds 13 1/2 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long.

Oh, What a Night!

We thought we were going to be having a baby there for a minute!

:)

Last night was definitely exciting, to say the least!

I'd been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions all day, so I took it pretty easy- let the daycare baby play at my feet while I sat in the easy chair to knit.

We don't have our birthing pool yet, so I really wasn't keen to go into labor- not to mention the bedroom and kitchen (which our bedroom opens off of) were a total mess still.
Remodeling does take it's toll! And, since we're planning a home birth, I really wanted my environment put together and cleaned up!

So, Pete got home from work yesterday afternoon, the daycare kids headed off home for the weekend, and we headed to town to pick up a few last minute things for the bedroom.

First, we went to supper.
It was good food, but it got pretty hard to concentrate on eating when what had been mild contractions started getting more frequent, and less mild.

*CONTENT WARNING: To those who may be squeamish about correct bodily terms being used, or about any further description of what started happening body-wise for me, stop reading now! :D




I had been feeling a lot of movement (at the time I thought maybe it was the baby kindly head-butting or kicking me) against my cervix throughout the day, but by the time we were at the restaurant that "movement" became serious!
I could tell things were starting to feel "softer"- quite often the contractions would cause some sharp pain in that area- nothing that lasted more than a second or two, but definitely getting my attention!

We proceeded to Lowe's to pick up our blinds, curtain rod, door knobs, and various other items, and were planning on making a quick stop at the grocery store after that to pick up a few things for the week to come.

By the time we were ready to check out though, we thought better of stopping anywhere else. Pete wanted to get as much done that evening as he could, and I needed to be on my way to an all day conference the next day at 7:00 a.m., then head to our last baby shower that evening. So, we headed for home- he was going to work, and I was going to head to bed.

The contractions kept up on the way home- not too frequent, just enough to keep me aware of them in the back of my mind. We got home, and I sat down for a few minutes to check some things on the computer before I headed to bed.

It was then that I noticed the contractions seemed to be getting rather regular- about every 15-20 min. or so.

Hmmmm, I thought. Okay, maybe I'll wait up a while and see what's going on here. I started browsing through our information to figure out how to tell the difference between false/pre-labor and the start of early/actual labor. I read that getting up and walking helps to figure this out- if it's false/pre-labor the contractions should lessen or go away. If it's early/actual labor, they would most likely increase in strength, length, and frequency. So, I started to walk.

They increased in frequency.

By this time I'll admit, I was (just slightly!) freaking out!

I'm not ready to have this baby tonight!- I don't have my birthing pool yet!- the house is still a mess!- were a few of the things going through my mind at this point.

Pete was GREAT throughout this! :D

He stayed so calm and cool for me- and convinced me to call our moms for advice as to what to do next.
(I was hesistant to call the midwife yet for some reason- I think I was in denial or something!)

So, we called- the grandmas-to-be were excited, but both strongly suggested we call the midwife (duh!). :)

So, I went ahead and called the midwife. She's such a sweet lady, and so calm (I probably would be too, after delivering nearly 700 babies in my career!!!), and she let me tell her all about the day's progression and what was happening now.

She really gave me a shot of confidence when she told me that I was describing what I was going through very well (especially since I felt so flustered at this point, I was really worried that I wasn't going to be able to be clear about the day and what was happening). She said that from everything I was describing that yes, these were real contractions. She said (again, from what I described of the day) that the baby had dropped into the birthing position, which can cause regular contractions like that. I mentioned that I didn't have the birthing pool yet, and wouldn't be able to pick it up for a couple of days. She suggested taking some herbs that, if it truly wasn't time to go into full labor yet, should help slow and possibly stop the contractions. She said to try that, try to get some sleep, and call her back right away if I couldn't sleep through the contractions or if they began to get really close together. She also explained how to time the contractions, which I had been trying to do, but didn't feel like I knew what I was doing!

So, that's what we did. I took the herbs and continued to putter about the house to see what would happen, while Pete kept track of the timing. We kept track for over an hour, and found out right away that they were already only about 4 min. apart, on average, and were getting longer and stronger!

We called our friends and family that wanted to know when labor started (so they could plan to be here soon after the baby was born), letting them know that yes, we were having real contractions, and that they were really close together, but not to come just yet- we were still waiting to see if they would continue.

By about 1:00 a.m. the herbs had taken effect, and the contractions were slowing and fading. I crawled into bed to see if they would stay at bay and if I could get some sleep, while Pete stayed up to finish the bedroom (this was quite the wake up call for both of us, to say the least, that we needed to get things ready ASAP!).

I slept well, and didn't get up again until 5:00 a.m. when I had another couple contractions. Pete came to bed shortly after that, and we both decided it would be wisest to skip my conference today and take it easy.

So, we slept in, called the midwife back and updated her, called the family & friends and updated them, and have been spending the day at home- Pete's finishing the trim in the bedroom as I type, and I've been puttering here and there, gathering things together for the birth in one place.

I'm headed to the baby shower this evening (as long as things stay calm!), and when I get back we'll be moving into our new bedroom!

:D

So, we're nearly there- in more ways than one!

The midwife said this morning that, after a session of contractions/early labor like that, it could still be a few weeks before she's ready to come for real, but often it's a sign that things are moving right along and it won't be a lot longer.

So, here's to the next hours/days/weeks!
We're excited to see what happens
(and to get that birthing pool here!)!

:D

Room Update 4

Get ready
(I know, it's loooong overdue!)-

this is going to be a picture-only post!

(Sorry for the delay- BUT, I finally found my digital camera/computer card reader again!)

:)